August 18, 2010

Well, sometimes a Burger King is more than just a fast food restaurant.

A recent Gawker post included a photo gallery of businesses located near Ground Zero.

The writer notes:

The mainstream criticism of the Park51 project—located about two blocks from the World Trade Center site—has been that it's "too close" to Ground Zero. This might be a valid objection, if the entire area had been closed off and turned into a shrine, and only buildings that were properly reverent to the memory of 9/11 were allowed, and everyone who worked in Lower Manhattan was in constant mourning.

But that's not the case. Blogger Daryl Lang, who works in the area, went out and took some photographs of buildings and locations that are the same distance from the World Trade Center site as the Park51 center will be. Among his findings? An Off Track Betting parlor, a Burger King, and a Vitamin Shoppe. (What better way to pay respect to the victims of 9/11 than to play the ponies and purchase some fish oil supplements?)

The remarks were a rare instance in this campaign season when Republicans have strayed from a focus on economic issues in their push for substantial gains in the House and Senate in November. The intensity of their attacks showed that they do not appear worried about the risk of being seen as intolerant or not supportive of the right to freedom of religion.

Some leading Democrats said it was the president’s role to stand up for constitutional rights in the mosque dispute.

Democrats can delude themselves into thinking they’re standing on higher ground. Come November, they will find they are standing on shaky ground with the American people.

August 16, 2010

That said, I agree 110 percent with the 9/11 families that building a 13-story mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero would desecrate the memory of the 3,000 victims of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Americans understand that 9/11 was an attack on the U.S., not Lower Manhattan. In the wake of the terrorist attacks, Americans from Maine to California proclaimed, “We are all New Yorkers.”

I sat in silence with hundreds of New Yorkers. I was unaware that I was covered with ashes until police officers told us to leave. There was concern about asbestos. The dust likely contained the incinerated remains of some victims.

I volunteered at Ground Zero for six months. On one occasion, I bore witness to firefighters recovering the remains of a victim of Muslim extremists.

To this day, I have on my desk a cross fashioned out of a beam that an ironworker gave me.

New Yorkers do not want the proposed “community center.” Indeed, Cordoba House would be a bridge to nowhere.

The issue is not about religious freedom. Americans get it.

Americans know that all Muslims are not terrorists. They also know the terrorists who attacked us did so in the name of Islam.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll found that 68 percent of Americans oppose the planned mosque, including 54 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of independents and 58 percent of nonwhites.

President Barack Obama seemed to support the mosque in his remarks on Friday at a White House dinner celebrating the start of Ramadan:

Now, that’s not to say that religion is without controversy. Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of Lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. And the pain and the experience of suffering by those who lost loved ones is just unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. And Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.

But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure.

On Saturday, Obama clarified his remarks:

I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.